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Tag: "Africa"

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By Erich Vieth on October 01st, 2009

Abandoning one’s adoptive child

What am I supposed to think when a woman steps forward to publicize her decision to give up an adopted child that she had raised for 18 months?

This story leaves me bewildered. I don’t think the story tells me enough to allow me to know what to think. I keep wondering, “What if it had been her biological child? What would I think then? Would I have an opinion in that case, or would I be in this same puzzled/confused state that I’m now experiencing?

How could I possibly render judgment without knowing a lot more about all of those involved? Even though I am sorely tempted to be angry with this adoptive mother at a gut level. But, as indicated in the video, this woman has parented her own biological children too. But that can cut two ways. And why aren’t we told anything at all about the adoptive father and his history and attitudes regarding this baby? And what about the claim that the baby is doing “well” with his new family? That cuts both ways too, in my opinion. What’s really going on here? Were there financial issues? Racial issues? Medical issues?

Such a frustrating story to me. What is the take-away message from this story? It makes me feel like a voyeur and it makes me want to accuse MSNBC of irresponsibly packaging this story.

Note: For those who don’t know me, I am an adoptive parent of two girls from China who I very much consider to be my daughter forever, no matter what happens–and that’s how my wife and I looked at adoption from Day One. I wonder how much my personal history colors my views on this abandonment story.

Community • Featured • Friendships/relationships
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Herr Ratzinger continues the massacre
By Hank on March 17th, 2009

Herr Ratzinger continues the massacre

HIV/AIDS is possibly the worst health crisis to hit this planet. It’s also arguably the worst thing to happen to the African continent since white people were regularly kidnapping its inhabitants and trading them like farm machinery.

But the one hopeful thing about the whole situation is this: while there’s no cure yet, AIDS is easily preventable. Ridiculously easily preventable. Avoiding the sharing of needles & using contraception are the two most effective ways to avoid the long, tortuous, wasting death we’ve all come to associate with this horrendous epidemic. And if you’re not an intravenous drug user (or you studiously avoid sticking sharp, blood-stained things in your body), there’s 50% of your prevention pretty much sorted already.

So … how the hell are you supposed to react when the gold-robed, paedophile-protecting dictator-for-life of the Catholic Church continues to threaten people with eternal torment for using contraception during sex (based on a very, very, um, interpretive interpretation the Bible) and instead tells people “just say no” to sex? In this story (BBC) Pope Oberstumbannfuhrer Herr Kaiser Ratzinger (I refuse to use his picked-out stagename, he’s not Axl Rose for crying out loud) once again proves to the world that not only is his outlook anachronistic, unrealistic & laughable, it’s also flat-out fatal. To millions upon millions of people.

Civil Rights • Cultural Evolution • Current Events • Featured • Good and Evil • Health • Religion • Reproductive Rights
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What if there were animals that were genetically close to modern humans, but startlingly different?
By Erich Vieth on January 27th, 2009

What if there were animals that were genetically close to modern humans, but startlingly different?

What if there were animals that looked very much like modern human animals and almost identical genetically, yet they differed from us in notable ways? Would their discovery shock and horrify people? Quite likely. Wouldn’t it also make many people start thinking deeply about the fact that modern humans themselves are animals? You’d hope so. Wouldn’t this discovery make us intensely curious about our own origins? Remains to be seen. What follows is a true story.

The evidence is overwhelming that large numbers of Neanderthals roamed Eurasia for 200,000 years. The evidence is also clear that Neanderthals differed from the modern humans in genetically small but socially and physiologically significant ways. This incredible story can be found in the October 2008 edition of National Geographic, in an article entitled “Last of the Neanderthals.” This article is a must read article for anybody who wants to peer into the not-so-distant past in order to learn about his or her bipedal cousins. The article is filled with incredibly lifelike modeling of the Neanderthals. It is also filled with detailed information about Neanderthal physiology, as well as clues to Neanderthal lifestyle.

Evolution • Featured • Human animals • Science
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By Erich Vieth on January 26th, 2009

The record of George W. Bush regarding AIDS

When asked what Bush accomplished during his eight years in office, many people point out that he was responsible for putting together a comprehensive AIDS program for Africa. In an article called, “An Unlikely Champion,” found in the January 15, 2009 edition of Nature (available only to subscribers online), the authors discuss the good and the not so good about the Bush AIDS program. That program was called the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (”PEPFAR”).

First of all, the good. PEPFAR put more than 2 million HIV-positive people on anti-retroviral treatments since the beginning of the program (in 2003). By 2008, PEPFAR prevented infection of 240,000 babies born to HIV-infected mothers. It also provided healthcare for 9.7 million people.

On the other hand, PEPFAR “has also been highly controversial because of stipulations on how its funds should be spent.”

Health • Medicine • Politics
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By Erich Vieth on November 05th, 2008

What else Sarah Palin didn’t know and why I’m not forgiving John McCain

What else didn’t Sarah Palin know?   It’s starting to leak out of the McCain camp now.  Check out this site and Bill O’Reilly video. It shows that Sarah Palin was abhorrently uninformed about basic matters affecting national security and that John McCain was trying to commit a fraud on the American people by nonetheless [...]

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By Erich Vieth on April 06th, 2008

How difficult would it be to give Africans hope against malaria?

Not very difficult, according to Jeffrey Sachs. 
Hard as it is for us to imagine, Africa’s households simply can’t afford even $10 for a net, or a dollar for medicines when a child falls sick. Nor can African governments carry these costs on meager budgets or take extra vital steps to train local health workers [...]

Health • Medicine
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By Erich Vieth on September 17th, 2007

How to trace your family tree 50,000 years back to your African origins

National Geographic’s Genographic Project offers all of us an extraordinary opportunity: a method of tracing each of our family trees back to our African roots.  Yes, each of us is African.  An ever-growing collection of DNA studies unambiguously demonstrate that each of us had ancestors who lived in Africa more than 50,000 years ago. 
Dr. Spencer [...]

Bigotry • History • Science
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By Erich Vieth on June 30th, 2007

Ancestors along the highway

[This idea was born as a comment here, but I decided to create a separate post out of it].
What if your mother stood right behind you, and your mother’s mother stood right behind her? Then your great grandma and then your great great grandma. Imagine them all lined up, one foot apart, stretching out into the distance. [...]

Bigotry • Evolution • Meaning of Life • Psychology Cognition • Science • Whimsy
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By Chris Van Mierlo on July 10th, 2006

Reflections on Hotel Rwanda

I haven’t seen Hotel Rwanda.  I actually rented the movie, and my husband and I started to watch it, but we had to stop.  We knew what was going to happen, and we didn’t want to see it:  we would have known what was going to happen even if we hadn’t had advance knowledge of [...]

Culture • History • Politics
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